42 GEEY PLOYEE. 



They feed morning and evening, and roost during the 

 daytime, either standing or crouching down. Their food 

 consists of marine insects, beetles, caterpillars, and worms, 

 the smaller shell-fish, and the berries of the whortle-berry 

 and the black-berried heath. 



The note Meyer likens to the word 'tlewee,' or 'gleewee.' 



They fly low, and very quickly, and have a habit of opening 

 the wings before starting, which in summer shews the jet 

 black breast to advantage. 



The eggs are dark green, spotted irregularly with different 

 shades of brown; the spots crowded and confluent round the 

 obtuse end. 



Male; weight, about seven ounces; length, eleven inches 

 and a half, or over; bill, black; iris, very dark brown; over 

 the eye is a white streak. Forehead, white or grey, in winter 

 white spotted with brown and grey; sides of the head, white, 

 with a few dusky lines; crown and neck on the back, grey, 

 the former less, the latter more, spotted with dusky, the 

 shafts black; nape, brown, black, and white; in the winter 

 all dusky with grey edges and tips to the feathers. Chin, 

 throat, neck in front, and breast, black in summer; the latter 

 white on the sides, but all in winter are spotted with brown 

 and grey, or yellowish white, the latter colours forming angular 

 marks on the feathers; the breast below, white, in winter 

 dull white. The back has the feathers black, widely tipped 

 with greyish white or white; in winter dusky, with grey 

 edges and tips to the feathers. 



The wings, about two feet in expanse, have the first quill 

 feather not quite half an inch longer than the second, and 

 the longest in the wing; greater and lesser wing coverts, black, 

 all barred on the tips with white or greyish white; primaries, 

 dusky, the shafts white. Montagu adds, 'the inner webs more 

 or less white, as well as the shafts; from the fifth some white 

 begins to appear on the outer web down the shaft, which 

 increases in the next, and from the seventh to the tenth the 

 whole of the outer web is white except on the point.' 

 Secondaries, dusky; tertiaries, dusky, barred with white, the 

 latter on the tips of the feathers. Greater and lesser under 

 wing coverts, white; tail, white, barred with numerous greyish 

 black bars; in winter white, barred with brown, and tipped 

 with yellowish brown; upper tail coverts, black and white, 

 the latter on the tips, white in winter; under tail coverts, white; 

 legs, toes, the hinder one of which is very small, only 



